As fans of the Apple TV sci-fi thriller Severancewe’ve been holding our collective breath for nearly three years since the thrilling season 1 finale. Our patience will soon be rewarded on Friday, Jan. 17, when the second season returns with the first of 10 new weekly episodes culminating in a season finale on March 21.

On the broken floor of Lumon Industries, employees of the Macrodata Refinery team cope with brain chips that permanently separate their work personalities from the rest of their lives. The first season of Severance features exciting twists and turns, juicy melon bars, a bonkers musical dance experience, a wildly revealing waffle party and a cavalcade of questions.

CNET spoke with series star Adam Scott, director and executive producer Ben Stiller and series creator and showrunner Dan Erickson on Zoom during the show’s official press day. Our chat gives us more insight into what’s next for the MDR crew. Below, we’ve collected five of our most burning questions for season 2.

It may go without saying, but stop reading now if you haven’t caught Severance season 1. Major spoilers are below.
Read more: Apple TV Plus Review: Small Library But The Quality Is Top Notch

Why did the Macrodata Refinery team decide to cut?

We know that Mark (Scott) chose to separate because he was grieving the death of his wife, and Helly (Britt Lower) joined because of the Lumon family connection, but what about Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan ( Zach Cherry)?

We see very little of Dylan’s life, but we do know that he lives with his three children, and they seem to have a decent relationship. Irving is obsessed with the elevator to the testing floor and lives a cloistered life with a dog named Radar.

When Severance first aired, audiences were left wondering what it would take to hack their own minds if such technology existed. What kind of trauma or toxic living conditions would drive such a choice?

Each character definitely has their own heartbreaking story behind their decision to be cut, and we’ll almost certainly get answers to this question in season 2.

Is Gemma really alive?

One of the biggest revelations of season 1 came at the end of episode 7, Defiant Jazz, when we learned that Ms. Casey — Lumon’s wellness director — is exactly like Outie Mark’s wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman), who is all out. world believed to have died in a car accident.

How did Lumon pull that off? Is dead Gemma a fake or a look-alike? Is Lumon in the practice of cloning people?

Cast members debunked the last theory in the aforementioned YouTube video, but it’s clear that Ms. Casey (whose innie only lived 108 hours) was very different from the other cut workers.

A fan theory suggests that Gemma is in a coma due to a car accident and her innie version only wakes up occasionally. But he showed no physical signs of a serious accident.

The real truth of Gemma/Ms. Casey seems to be one of the biggest writing challenges for the show. This mystery will definitely be answered in season 2. According to Scott, this is a plot point that highlights his character’s storyline this season and sparks a struggle between Mark’s two selves.

“He feels like he has to help his outie and get Gemma somehow out the door,” said the actor. “But is that where his emotional relationships and his emotional interests are? The really interesting thing about Innie and Outie Mark this season is the alignment of their interests.

Why is Harmony Cobel so obsessed with Lumon Industries?

As the manager of Lumon’s cut floor, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) takes her job very seriously. He is cult-like in his devotion to Lumon’s founder, Kier Eagan, and the nine core principles. His basement at home includes a shrine to Kier and personal artifacts from his mother, Charlotte.

Harmony is unbreakable, as are Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and Doug Graner. However, unlike the two of them, she maintains a separate persona to the outside world — Mark’s neighbor, “Mrs. Selvig,” who makes mean lavender cookies and always screws up. -mark’s recycling bins.

One of the running themes of the show’s first season was Harmony’s conflict with the Lumon board regarding “reintegration,” the controversial practice of reuniting workers’ personalities after the brain chip is removed. The board insists that reintegration is impossible, while Harmony has first-hand evidence that Petey Kilmer did it (before he was killed).

After keeping Helly’s suicide attempt a secret, the board fires Harmony, who responds by running out of her basement and collapsing in grief at her shrine, which we now see holding a ventilator tube and a medical bracelet. reads, “Charlotte Cobel” with date of birth. on March 17, 1944.

Harmony and Mrs. Selvig dressed in a way that covered their necks, which was never seen. Could Harmony be Charlotte, with scars from a tracheotomy or other neck surgery? Does he have a personal investment in reintegration?

Cobel is actually an interesting character. There must be more to his story. We still have some out-of-the-box questions we’re pondering: Is Harmony harboring a historical grudge and playing the long game to avenge a mother or sister? Could Lumon be experimenting with life-extending technologies? And is Harmony speaking strange because she is actually the reincarnation of Kier Eagan’s wife, Imogene?!

We could go on, but you get the point. There are a lot of questions surrounding Harmony Cobel, and we’re about to learn more about her backstory in season 2.

Why did Irving paint the hallway and elevator?

When we see Outie Irving, we know he likes to listen to Motorhead and repeatedly paints the elevator to Lumon’s test floor. Dominated by thick black, these paintings fill Outie Irving’s house and explain why Innie Irving’s nails are full of black gunk.

But what does Innie Irving have to do with that lonely hallway and elevator? Has he been to the testing floor or is one of them missing? We never saw him in that elevator area in Lumon. In fact, the only person we see using that elevator is Ms. Casey.

One fan theory says that Innie Irving visited the testing floor and was “reset” by Lumon several times, which would explain why he says he’s been there for three years, but his badge shows nine.

Irving’s John Turturro personally “debunked” that theory in a Severance cast promo video. Perhaps Innie Irving’s trauma from the trial floor seeped into her outer persona. Or is Outie Irving trying to send a message through his unconsciousness to Innie Irving?

How much of a sociopath is Helena Eagan, though?

As her story arc in season 1 made clear, Helly wants nothing to do with Lumon. In fact, he threatened to self-harm to escape. Things did not go his way. In one of the more violent scenes of season 1, Outie Helly sends a video message to Innie Helly, saying, “I’m a man. Not you. I make the decisions.”

During the season finale, we discovered that Outie Helly is Helena Eagan, the daughter of current Lumon Industries CEO Jame Eagan, and underwent severance as a PR campaign to ensure that the severing practice remains legal. During our Zoom chat with Erickson, it was joked that Outie Helly might have drunk too much Lumon Kool-Aid.

“The Innies feel closer to the real, authentic version of themselves for each of the characters, in part, because they wake up as a little blank slate,” Erickson said. “In a way, he (Helly) represents a more authentic version of that person than his outie maybe.”

Instead of just focusing on things inside Lumon, which is how season 1 mostly played out, it looks like Severance season 2 will expand its scope and explore the homes and personal lives of the MDR outies.

As for the innies, they wrestle with a collective identity crisis.

“How they are divided is another question,” said Ben Stiller. “How much of this severance barrier really divides their emotions, their feelings and their desires? When you see an innie more innocent than an outie, the idea for me sometimes is your childhood, your inner child.”

When you consider that our MDR heroes are operating with a childish mindset, their journey can feel very dangerous. According to Erickson, everything is getting darker and scarier.

Now that the innies have seen a piece of the outside world, what kind of effects are on the horizon? “There is no victory without push and without pain,” said Erickson.

“We want to see what happens to the characters once they hit the bear,” he added. “What happens when the bear comes back?”